The Noble Lie

I found this great video on Gingatao. The sound is a little out of sync at the beginning but the content more than makes up for it.

Ruthlessly candid as he always was, the real Hunter Thompson makes a profound observation on the shackles of fame/infamy and the pressure to live up to one's own reputation. The "me" we show the world is only a part of the real "me."

Fox News was busted by HuffPo, Media Matters, and others for flagrantly identifying shamed Republican Governor Mark Sanford as a Democrat .

I have the strangest feeling of Déjà Vu, maybe because tomorrow it will have been a year ago that I posted about the exact same dirty trick, used by Fox News regarding child-sexting Mark Foley. Is there a deeper signficance at work here? Beats me, Mark the Evangelist was martyred in April...

This documentary by Robert Kane Pappas is an excellent look into the media oligarchy, information, and perception control. It focuses on the 2000 Bush vs. Gore election but is wide in its historical view.

I liken an abusive government or institution to an abusive relationship. When an abuser commits abuse and gets away with it, subsequent episodes of abuse become easier for the abuser. The abuse also becomes more frequent and extreme over time. As the abuse becomes more frequent and extreme, the abuse dynamic comes to define the relationship more and more.

Excuses, justifications, and rationalizations are the currency of abusers. When excuses don't work, outright lies are employed. Abuse is committed out of love for the abused.  The abuser keeps the abused safe from the dangerous world outside. The abuser has their own view of the world which the abused must adopt in order to placate the abuser. In an abusive relationship, the abused must consider the response of the abuser in every word they say and every action they take.

There's an old saying that reads, "where the King goes, so go the people." Abusers are often the victims of abuse themselves earlier in life. Abusive cultures create abusive people.

Reconciliation, if possible at all, is only possible when the abuser acknowledges their actions as abuse, vows never to repeat them, and atones properly for them.

Terence McKenna uses a brilliant metaphor to describe our cultural reality, its structure and its flaws. In the era of brain chips, this threatens to become more than just metaphor.

He advocates erasing your "operating system" with the aid of Psilocybin mushrooms. If that thought is unnerving or you just don't have access to them (which is my problem), there are other ways to wipe your OS that take more work, which involve shutting out the manufactured world around us and plumbing the depths of your own psyche.

Many tribal cultures have had sacred relationships with mind-altering plants, and "drug addiction" was typically not a problem in their lifestyle. These plants were held and used with what we might call religious reverence. I think the number of drug addicts in our culture today says a lot more about the culture than it does about the drugs.

Another thing that fascinates me about drugs is how many of them do little more than tell your brain to release one of its own drugs. There is a tiny drug dealer within each of us.

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."
- Aldous Huxley

Anybody who has been excited about the possibility of the end of the Iraq war with a change in administrations have been frustrated time and time again as the timetable continues to slip. During his campaign, the Obama team stood committed to a rapid drawdown, which then slipped into late 2010. The latest timetable I saw in the Washington Times assures the public we’re on track to remove all combat troops by a 2011 deadline, and even that is being criticized as “bowing to politics.”

The issue is worse than most would guess. Most of these drawdown and withdrawl proposals have to do with "combat troops." Do you know what constitutes a “combat troop?” According to several sources, a “combat troop” is one that is involved in offensive operations within the country. Training, manning bases, secret intelligence operations, communication support, and "policing" with Iraqi troops are all “non-combat” functions. Non-military mercenary troops, such as the infamous Blackwater, do not count as "combat troops" either.

The term is “remissioning.” The plan is to turn our “combat troops” into “non-combat troops,” which means finishing the job of turning a “war zone” into a “police state.” If you won’t draw down the troops, and you have to do something for the public's sake, the best plan is to draw down the rhetoric.

We are being flooded in different proposals and timetables, and we need to listen for that term when they are floated. Make sure you know exactly what is being proposed.

The answer to this question, which has eluded me in the past, is very obvious. With all of the sophisticated propaganda techniques that have been developed with the use of modern science, the most effective way to control people's opinion still boils down to social pressure and social ridicule. This is especially true of the young, and the young are always the target as the young are the adults of tomorrow, at which point those seeds of doubt will be in full bloom. To me, this is a big part of Plato's allegory of the cave, though Plato's Cave has many false exits, maybe some exits which are true for others but false for you, and many of the people waiting at those false exits have a false sun to show you.

Remember when there was a big push to educate young people not to smoke anymore? The first wave of commercials that came out informed people of the risks of smoking: addiction, illness, lung cancer, emphysema, early painful death, etc. These commercials were not effective at all. Then, a second wave of commercials came out with a new focus: if you smoke, you will be uncool, the girl won't kiss you and she'll think you're gross, your friends will be disgusted with you, you won't make any friends, your family will be ashamed, and so on. These commercials have been incredibly successful. Most of us would rather die than be alone.

Cling to ideas and principles. They are immortal. We will all die some day. Beyond our natural mortality, people can be killed, bribed, fired, threatened, re-educated, and blackballed (incidentally, a term which comes from Freemasonry), and so can their friends and families.

From The Republic by Plato:

Plato's cave is full of freaks
Demanding refunds for the things they've seen
I wish they could believe
In all the things that never made the screen

- Jack Johnson, "Inaudible Melodies"

With half a dose of humor and half a dose of insight, Dave Chappelle deconstructs some of our favorite children's cartoons. He certainly makes a subtle point better than my ham-fisted analysis of Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and HAMAS.

"Bitch, I live in a fuckin' trash can! I'm the poorest motherfucker on Sesame Street. Nobody's helpin' me."

This guy is my new hero. I can't believe I never found this 1992 documentary before now.

Instead of watching the satellite television station like a good boy, this bloke found the frequencies to the satellite feed and started watching TV news the way it should be: unfiltered. Watch handlers tell presidents and politicians how to field their questions and avoid uncomfortable issues. Learn interesting new terms like "satellite tour."

Plus, it's just always amusing to me to watch rich and influential men power-paint on the make-up.